Christian Responses To Black Death

During the time when the Black Plague struck there were two main religions in the world, Christianity and Islam. Christianity follows the teachings of Jesus Christ, God’s son. The book of the Christian is the Bible. The religion of Islam deals with submission to God, and following the teachings of Mohammed, which are spelled out in the Koran (The DBQ Project, Background Essay). An interesting topic that one might discover of this time is, how did these two religions react to the plague. Could it be possible that they acted as everyone else did at that time, or did they hold strong to their beliefs? When they Black Plague struck, the Christians and the Muslims had similar ways of dealing and responding to it.

Christian and Muslim responses to the Black Death. Indeed the Christian and Muslims specifically believed it was a punishment from God. For instance the muslims on the other hand thought if it was from God it has to be good. The christian people believed that God was punishing them for sinning. The plague killed 25 - 45% of the populations it came in contact with. They both had some similarities in trying to prevent the Christians and Muslims from getting the Black Death.

Little was known about the clergy during the Black Death. For a long time people believed that the Catholic Church had fled from its duty to serve the people, but that could not be further from the truth. In recent discovery it was found that greater than 50 percent of clergy were killed during the Black Death. This was not because the clergy were running away; rather, the clergy stayed and helped the people in villages, knowing the likelihood they would survive would be slim throughout this epidemic. It is my goal in this paper to describe what was occurring during the Black Death and how the Catholic Church and its clergy reacted to the epidemic.

The Black Death discusses the causes and results of the plague that devastated medieval Europe. It focuses on the many effects it had on the culture of medieval Europe and the possibility that it expedited cultural change. I found that Robert S. Gottfried had two main theses in the book. He argued that rodent and insect life cycles, as well as the changing of weather systems affect plague. He claimed that the devastation plague causes is partly due to its perpetual recurrences. Plague ravaged Europe in cycles, devastated the people when they were recuperating. As can be later discovered in the book, the cycles of plague consumed the European population. A second thesis, which he described in greater detail,

Through some bickering from the neighbors and doing some research of my own I came to find out the reason behind this whole mess. Donna Maria, the old lady from the the block started spreading rumors of how the Black Death started because their was not truth realness to our religion. How the community was not engaged enough with God’s Will. Some people followed her bief due to accepting that God was punishing them, some type of retribution for their sins such as greed. By this logic, the only way to overcome the plague was to win God’s forgiveness. However, this was all a mistake because we had yet to understand the science behind this mess and how it was truly affecting our people. However, sister we both know how much of this is pure garbage.

For the Muslims’ point of view Muhammad al-Manbiji stated that “… a Muslim should devoutly accept the divine act.” The way Muslims wanted to cure the disease was to simply accept the fact that it was there. They didn’t want to tamper with God but instead move on and continue their life. After a while of the plague not disappearing, a lot of people of different religions were starting to get desperate. Ibn Battuta wrote “The entire population of the city (of Damascus) joined… (all) of them in tears… imploring the favor of God through His Books and His Prophets.” (doc. 9) Finally, after not a lot was happening to keep the Black Death away, Muslims, Christians and Jews alike were getting together in order to find a way to cure themselves from the plague. Although they ended up getting together in order to see what would work, Muslims’ responses were still as a whole more peaceful and calm than that of the Christians.

Religion has always been a major theme in history, and even now does not fail to play an important role. The desire to gain more believers and convert people makes up the base of the reason for the differences in Muslim and Christian responses the Black Plague. As Gabriele de Mussis, a Christian chronicler during the Black Death, states, “I am overwhelmed, I can’t go on!...The hand of the Almighty strikes repeatedly to greater and greater effect.” On the contrary, Muhammad al Manbiji, an Islamic scholar, said that “…the plague is a blessing from God; at the least, a Muslim should devoutly accept the divine act.” (doc. 4) These two viewpoints of the plague are complete opposites; Christians are overwhelmed that their population is dying out while Muslims are accepting it as a blessing that their rival religion is suffering. These documents were combined to emphasize the contrast between

As a result of the Black Death, Europeans rebelled while Empires of Islam did not react unmanageably. As the disease became increasingly prominent, Europeans acted rebelliously. According to William Dene, a European chronicler, laborers and skilled workmen had such a spirit of rebellion that no higher authority could curb them (Document 6). This demonstrates how the Black Death changed the lifestyle of Europeans, causing people to resort to problematic alternatives for survival. Muslims, however, did not rebel in any way. Michael Dols stated there was no evidence of messianic movements within the Muslim society associated with the disease, unlike Europeans (Document 10). This shows that Islamic empires respected authority and did not rebel, as opposed to the Europeans. In contrast to the Muslims, who respected authority and remained peaceful during the Black Death, Europeans became defiant and rebellious.

The Black Death was one of the worst pandemics in history. The disease ravaged Europe, Western Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa between 1346 and 1353 (Horrox 1994). It is difficult to understand the reality of such a devastating event, especially given the fact that science during the middle ages was severely underdeveloped. No one knew about bacteria, viruses, or other microbial agents of disease (Benedictow 2004). They had no way of protecting themselves during that time and no one was safe from the effects of the plague. Those who wrote chronicles claimed that only a tenth of the population had survived, while others claimed that half to a third of the population was left alive (Horrox 1994). In 1351, agents for Pope Clement VI predicted the number of deaths in Europe to be 23,840,000 (Gottfried 1983). Obviously, not all regions experienced the same mortality rates, but modern estimates of the death rate in England give the first outbreak a mortality rate of about forty-eight percent (Horrox 1994). That is, England lost half of its population in about a year and a half. Clearly the chroniclers ' who claimed that ninety percent of the population had died were overstating the magnitude of the plague, but this overemphasis demonstrates how terrifying the pandemic was to those who experienced it (Horrox 1994). The Black Death had huge consequences on the lives of those who were impacted directly, as well as major religious and cultural effects that came afterward.

As a result of the Black Death, Christians and Muslims were the major religions to respond to this event. One would still say, people do not know much about the Bubonic plague. To repeat, Christians were the ones to take this event to the next level, when they started burning the Jews. Muslims just thought of it has a blessing. Muslims was the ones to bring all ethnic groups together in worship and prayer after the plague. Readers would think of it has help to one another or more like allies. For this it proves that religions respond to things different than

One of the most documented Christian responses to the plague was the rise of the flagellants. A spontaneous and unsanctioned movement, the flagellants sought to ward off the plague by physically punishing themselves for the sins that had caused God to send the Black Death to punish them (Tuchman, 1978, p. 125). Flagellant processions would typically remain on the move, marching from town to town, while twice a day beating themselves with whips and other instruments until they drew blood (Slack, 1988, p. 439). They were also known for their singing of religious songs while marching and whipping themselves, which ran counter to the official Catholic Church position and caused church officials no small amount of trouble (Lerner, 1981, p. 535-36). The official reasoning by the Catholic Church was that the flagellant movement was an unnecessary and wrong reaction to the Black Death, since there were equal death rates among Christians and Jews. The flagellants were also part of a Christian movement known as premillennialism (Lerner, 1981, 534). The extensive deaths in Europe cause many Christians to believe that the second coming of Christ was near, which would result in the end of the world. This interest in the events that were prophesied to happen just before the end of the world ran very high during this time. This interest was also a large influence responsible for the rise of groups like the flagellants (Lerner, 1981, 538).

During Europe’s boom in trade more advanced ways of cargo shipping and sea travel were developed, but with this advancement also came the transport of disease. The most deadly of these new diseases was the well-known Black Death, which starting in 1347 took its toll on Western Europe. Throughout history, when faced with hard times, the true side of humanity can be seen; during these times humanity often reverts back to their roots whether those be the barbaric or the amiable. During the Black Death civilizations did just that; the chaos stricken communities of Europe responded in various ways some more righteous and beneficial, and others negative and barbaric.

In the Later Middle Ages, from 1300 to 1450, a plague is seen spreading and killing mass amounts of people in Europe, this plague would later be named the Black Death. Starting in China in 1331 and then spreading to Europe by cargo ships in 1347. During the Later Middle Ages the climate also changed, dropping the temperature, killing crops, and freezing water supplies. During this period there were also multiple crisis that began to pop up, and not many can be attributed to the Black Death. One must take each event and look for causation case-by-case rather they labeling all with the same brush stroke.

“Because of such happenings and many others of a like sort, various fears and superstitions arose among the survivors, almost all of which tended toward one end-to flee from the sick and whatever had belonged to them. In this way each man thought to be safeguarding his own health. Some among them were of the opinion that by living temperately and guarding against excesses of all kinds, they could do much toward avoiding the danger; and in forming a band they lived away from the rest of the world. Gathering in those houses where no one had been ill and living was more comfortable, they shut themselves in. They ate moderately of the best that could be had and drank

     The Black Death and the other epidemics of bubonic plague had many consequences. One was a series of vicious attacks on Jews, lepers, and outsiders who were accused of deliberately poisoning the water or the air. The attacks began in the south of France, but were most dramatic in parts of Switzerland and Germany—areas with a long history of attacks on local Jewish communities. Massacres in Bern were typical of this pattern: After weeks of fearful tension, Jews were rounded up and burned or drowned in marshes. Sometimes there were attacks